A look into Adroit’s VALORANT Roster

The professional esports scene for new first-person-shooter game VALORANT is quickly shaping up, and Filipino teams definitely do not want to miss out.

Riot’s hot “Overwatch-meets-Counterstrike” game has long sparked the curiosity of many gamers, especially FPS fans since it’s closed beta in April. After its worldwide launch on June 2, the VALORANT Ignition Series was immediately announced, which will serve as the first competitive ecosystem of VALORANT.

Adroit Esports, known for its significant run in Dota, is one of the latest org to announce its expansion to the game, along with a cryptic video.

The organization welcomed Filipino players Jessie Cristy “JessieVash” Cuyco (Captian), Kevin “dispenser” Te, Marvin Anthony “whoME” Roque, Giancarlo Manuel ” gicama” Santos, and Joshua “Grand” Ogame. The team will be coached under Gilbert “Gibo” Sales Jr.

South.gg grabbed this chance to get a few details from the team through an online interview.

The players

Before being taken up by Adroit, the five were already playing under the team name, fiVe. They’ve already won three tournaments together.

JessieVash had a career as a Dota professional playing for teams Mineski and HappyFeet. However, he shared that he was originally playing FPS games, specifically CounterStrike way before he played Dota.

“In 2016, I retired from Dota 2 and played Overwatch and became known in the SEA region as a DPS player from the PH. But the lack of events and just generally the competitive scene in the country and the SEA region I switched back to Dota 2 in 2017,” said JessieVash.

His love for FPS obviously stood out more when VALORANT came up. Such opportunity cannot be missed.

The same went with the rest of the players, who are also familiar names in the world of FPS. Dispenser, like some players, also migrated to VALORANT after his stint in competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). WhoME, Gicama, and Grand were all Overwatch players.

One attractive gameplay they saw in VALORANT was how it mixed the good sides of most FPS games. As pointed out by Grand, “it combines the utility aspect of Overwatch and the fundamentals of CS:GO.”

“It incorporated aspects from two FPS that I loved playing which is CounterStrike and Overwatch. It only made sense for me to try it out,” added Gicama, who migrated from Overwatch.

Coach Gibo, known for his time with Liyab Esports, came from a long hiatus in competitive gaming. He was swept with the hype brought by the Riot’s VALORANT.

“It was a no brainer for me to try out Valorant, the hype from this game is pretty big so I grabbed that opportunity,” Gibo said.

Looking ahead

The organization has high hopes for the team, especially with how Riot Games is promoting the game as an esport. They also wish to promote the FPS community in the Philippines.

“… we all know the FPS scene is not that big compared to MOBAs here in the Philippines but they stuck with it. It just shows their dedication and passion and here at Adroit Esports those two things are very important core values,” the organization expressed.

Asked on potential threats in future tournaments, the team mentioned Team Goodvibes, TMT, Ronin, EXE, and ANBU.

Because of the ongoing pandemic, the team is continuously doing scrimmages at home instead of doing it in their bootcamp.

For aspiring FPS players, here’s what the team has to say;

“Just keep on grinding and learning the game whether you win or lose, constant learning and improvement are far more important than your match history!”